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Women of the pandemic : stories from the frontlines of COVID-19 / by McKeon, Lauren,author.;
"Throughout history, men have fought, lost, and led us through the world's defining crises. That all changed with COVID-19. In Canada, women's presence in the vanguard of the response to the pandemic has been notable. Women are our nurses, doctors, PSWs. Our cashiers, long-haulers, farmers, cooks. In Canada, women are leading the fast-paced search for a vaccine. They are leading our provinces and territories. At home, they are leading families through self-isolation, often bearing the responsibility for their physical and emotional health. They are figuring out what working from home looks like, and many of them are doing it while homeschooling their kids. Women crafted the blueprint for kindness during the pandemic, from sewing masks to kicking off international mutual-aid networks. And, perhaps not surprisingly, women have also suffered some of the biggest losses, bearing the brunt of our economic skydive. Through intimate portraits of Canadian women in diverse situations and fields, Women of the Pandemic is a gripping narrative record of the early months of COVID-19, a clear-eyed look at women's struggles, which highlights their creativity, perseverance, and resilience as they charted a new path forward during impossible times."--
Subjects: COVID-19 (Disease); Motherhood.; Mothers; Parenting.; Women employees; Women; Work and family.; Work-life balance.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Source code : my beginnings / by Gates, Bill,1955-author.;
"The origin story of one of the most influential and transformative business leaders and philanthropists of the modern age The business triumphs of Bill Gates are widely known: the twenty-year-old who dropped out of Harvard to start a software company that became an industry giant and changed the way the world works and lives; the billionaire many times over who turned his attention to philanthropic pursuits to address climate change, global health, and U.S. education. Source Code is not about Microsoft or the Gates Foundation or the future of technology. It's the human, personal story of how Bill Gates became who he is today: his childhood, his early passions and pursuits. It's the story of his principled grandmother and ambitious parents, his first deep friendships and the sudden death of his best friend; of his struggles to fit in and his discovery of a world of coding and computers in the dawn of a new era; of embarking in his early teens on a path that took him from midnight escapades at a nearby computer center to his college dorm room, where he sparked a revolution that would change the world. Bill Gates tells this, his own story, for the first time: wise, warm, revealing, it's a fascinating portrait of an American life"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Autobiographies.; Personal narratives.; Gates, Bill, 1955-; Businesspeople; Computer scientists; Philanthropists;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The sweet remnants of summer / by McCall Smith, Alexander,1948-author.;
"Our favorite moral philosopher is caught up in a delicate dispute between members of a prominent family as her husband, Jamie, is dragged into his own internecine rivalry. Isabel accepts an invitation to serve on the advisory committee of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, but soon finds herself swept up in an all-too-familiar dilemma. David is the grandson of a Scottish clan chief and is supportive of Scottish nationalism. But his fervent beliefs are threatening family harmony, especially because his sister Catriona's socialist views put her at odds with her brother. When their mother, Laura, a fellow committee member, asks Isabel to intervene, she tries to demur. But always one for courteous resolutions to philosophical disagreements, Isabel can't help but intercede. In the meantime, Jamie, having criticized Isabel for getting involved in the affairs of others, does precisely that himself. Jamie is helping to select a new cellist for his ensemble, but he suspects that the conductor may be focused on something other than his favored candidate's cello skills. With so many factors complicating matters, Isabel and Jamie will have to muster all their tact and charm to ensure that comity is reached between all these fractious parties"--
Subjects: Detective and mystery fiction.; Philosophical fiction.; Novels.; Dalhousie, Isabel (Fictitious character); Families; Man-woman relationships; Philosophers; Women philosophers;
Available copies: 3 / Total copies: 3
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Clara at the door with a revolver : the scandalous Black suspect, the exemplary White son, and the murder that shocked Toronto / by Whitzman, Carolyn,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."In the autumnal darkness of October 6, 1894, an unseen figure slipped through the streets of Parkdale, rang the doorbell at the home of a well-to-do Toronto family, and shot Frank Westwood in his doorway, murdering him in cold blood. Six weeks later, the spotlight shone on the enigmatic Clara Ford, a Black tailor and single mother known for her impeccable work ethic and resolute personality--and for wearing men's attire. A former neighbor of the Westwoods, Clara was arrested and confessed to the murder. But as the details of her arrest and her complex connection to the Westwood family emerged, she recanted, testifying that she was coerced by police into a false confession. Clara was the first woman--and only the second person--to testify on her own behalf in a Canadian trial. Set in three acts, this story illuminates not only the riveting case itself but also the societal attitudes, gender and race hypocrisy, and the politics of media power in the growing city of Toronto. Carolyn Whitzman tells the compelling story of a courageous Black woman living in nineteenth-century Toronto and paints a portrait of a city and a society that have not changed enough in 125 years."--
Subjects: Biographies.; Personal narratives.; Ford, Clara, 1864?-; Ford, Clara, 1864?-; Westwood, Frank, -1894.; Murder; Trials (Murder); Women, Black;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Rogues : true stories of grifters, killers, rebels, and crooks / by Keefe, Patrick Radden,1976-author.;
"Patrick Radden Keefe has garnered prizes ranging from the National Magazine Award to the Orwell Prize to the National Book Critics Circle Award forhis meticulously-reported, hypnotically-engaging work on the many ways people behave badly. ROGUES brings together a dozen of his most celebrated articles from The New Yorker. As Keefe says in his preface "They reflect on some of my abiding preoccupations: crime and corruption, secrets and lies, the permeable membrane separating licit and illicit worlds, the bonds of family, the power of denial." Keefe brilliantly explores the intricacies of forging $150,000 vintage wines, examines whether a whistleblower who dared to expose money laundering at a Swiss bank is a hero or a fabulist, spends time in Vietnam with Anthony Bourdain, chronicles the quest to bring down a cheerful international black market arms merchant, and profiles a passionate death penalty attorney who represents the "worst of the worst," among other bravura works of literary journalism. The appearance of his byline in The New Yorker is always an event, and collected here for the first time readers can see his work forms an always enthralling but deeply human portrait of criminals and rascals, as well as those who stand up against them"--
Subjects: Crime.; Investigative reporting; Reportage literature, American.; Swindlers and swindling.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Mussolini's daughter : the most dangerous woman in Europe / by Moorehead, Caroline,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index.Edda Mussolini was Benito's favourite child: spoiled and venal, uneducated but clever, faithless but flamboyant, a brilliant diplomat, wild but brave, and ultimately strong and loyal. For much of the twenty-year period of Fascist rule, she was her father's closest confidante. In 1930, at the age of nineteen, Edda married Count Galeazzo Ciano, who would become the youngest Foreign Secretary in Italian history. Acting as envoy to both Germany and Britain, Edda played a part in steering Italy to join forces with Hitler. During this time, the Cianos became the most celebrated and glamorous couple in elegant, vulgar Roman fascist society. Their fortunes turned in 1943, when Ciano voted against Mussolini in a plot to bring him down, and his father-in-law did not forgive him. Edda's dramatic story includes hidden diaries, her father's downfall and her husband's execution, and an escape into Switzerland followed by a period in exile. Moorehead draws a portrait of a complicated, bold, and determined woman--one who emerges not just as a witness but as a key player in some of the twentieth century's defining moments. And we see Fascist Italy with all its glamour, decadence and political intrigue, and the turbulence before its violent end.
Subjects: Biographies.; Ciano, Edda Mussolini, Contessa.; Ciano, Edda Mussolini, Contessa; Ciano, Edda Mussolini, Contessa; Statesmen's spouses;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Good night, Irene / by Urrea, Luis Alberto,author.;
"In 1943, Irene Woodward abandons an abusive fiancé in New York to enlist with the Red Cross and head to Europe. She makes fast friends in training with Dorothy Dunford, a towering Midwesterner with a ferocious wit. Together they are part of an elite group of women, nicknamed Donut Dollies, who command military buses called Clubmobiles at the front line, providing camaraderie and a taste of home that may be the only solace before troops head into battle. After D-Day, these two intrepid friends join the Allied soldiers streaming into France. Their time in Europe will see them embroiled in danger, from the Battle of the Bulge to the liberation of Buchenwald. Through her friendship with Dorothy, and a love affair with a gallant American fighter pilot named Hans, Irene learns to trust again. Her most fervent hope, which becomes more precarious by the day, is for all three of them to survive the war intact. Taking as inspiration his mother's own Red Cross service, Luis Alberto Urrea has delivered an overlooked story of women's heroism in World War II. With its affecting and uplifting portrait of friendship and valor in harrowing circumstances, Good Night, Irene powerfully demonstrates yet again that Urrea's "gifts as a storyteller are prodigious" (NPR)"--
Subjects: Historical fiction.; War fiction.; Novels.; Female friendship; Man-woman relationships; Red Cross and Red Crescent; World War, 1939-1945;
Available copies: 2 / Total copies: 2
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Love and laughter in the time of chemotherapy / by Pawagi, Manjusha,1967-author.;
"'April 28, 2014: I won't be coming in today, I have leukemia.' That's the message Manjusha Pawagi, a family court judge in Brampton, Ontario relayed to her office one morning after a routine blood test showed a deadly result. She did not return to work for two and a half years. Wryly funny and stubbornly hopeful, this is her quirky take on what it's like to face your own mortality when, to be honest, you thought you'd live forever. It describes how even the darkest moments of life can be made worse by roommates; details how much determination it takes to ignore the statistics; and answers the age-old question, what does it take to get a banana Popsicle when you need one?"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Pawagi, Manjusha, 1967-; Pawagi, Manjusha, 1967-; Authors, Canadian; Cancer; Judges;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Want : women's fantasies in the twenty-first century / by Anderson, Gillian,1968-editor.;
"A raw, revelatory, and inclusive exploration of women's sexual fantasies, Want is a collection of anonymous letters written by women across the world, curated by the legendary Gillian Anderson. I wonder so many things and I would give anything to know if someone else has these same thoughts, solely so I can know I'm not alone. As women, we know that sex is about more than just sex. It always has been. When we talk about sex, we talk about womanhood and motherhood, infidelity and exploitation, consent and respect, identity and community, love and hate, pleasure and pain. And yet for many reasons -- perhaps shame, guilt, embarrassment, insecurity, social and cultural expectations to name a few -- so many of us don't talk about it. Our deepest, most intimate fears and fantasies remain locked away inside of us, until someone comes along with the key. In this generation-defining book, Gillian Anderson compiles the anonymous letters of hundreds of women to reveal their varied fantasies and how women today really think about sex. From fear and frustrations to BDSM and polyamory, together their stories produce an expansive, inclusive portrait of sexuality in the twenty-first century. The result is an essential and fascinating exploration of not only the broad desires of women, but what it means to be a woman today."--
Subjects: Sexual fantasies.; Women;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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We have never lived on Earth : stories / by Van Schaik, Kasia,author.;
Includes bibliographical references."'Love in the age of microplastics.' Kasia Van Schaik's debut story collection follows the journey of Charlotte Ferrier, a child of divorce raised by a single mother in a small town in British Columbia after moving from South Africa. The stories traverse the most intimate, violent, and transforming moments of female experience in a world threatened by ecological crisis. Charlotte navigates relationships-- with lovers, parents, friends, and environments-- as they form and fray. Mother and daughter wait out the end of a bad year in a Mexican hotel; a friendship is tested as forest fires demolish Charlotte's town; a childhood friend disappears while travelling through Europe; and a girl on the beach examines the memories of dying jellyfish. Each story asks: how do we find connection in a world shaped by isolation? How do we accept the new? Written in startling, poetic prose, We Have Never Lived On Earth captures the feelings and experiences of being a woman: physical and psychological threat, creativity, disappointment, objectification, and desire. Calling to mind Alice Munro's precocious Del Jordan and Rachel Cusk's Faye, these powerful portraits of female interiority balance nostalgia, fear, and hope for the future as they tell of the struggle to understand what it means to live on earth."--Provided by publisher.
Subjects: Short stories.; Linked stories.; Psychological fiction.; Children of single parents; South Africans; Women;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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